The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

GRAND Bahama Rotarian Mike Stafford said on Friday that the Rotary Clubs on the island have joined in a major international fundraising effort to help rebuild the devastated economies of the southern islands affected by Hurricane Joaquin.

Mr Stafford, president of the Rotary Club of Freeport, said the organisation is reaching out to their international rotary partners and friends overseas for funds and have started some crowdfunding sites on the Internet.

“We have a couple of crowdfunding sites going on, and the GB District which is joined with the Florida 6990 District, have something called the Robbins Fund and we are getting money into that. And all the Rotary Clubs in Nassau and the four clubs on Grand Bahama have joined up for crowd funding,” he said.

As of Friday morning, $26,000 in monetary donations had been raised through the site, Mr Stafford said. “We are looking for some $75,000 by the end of the week,” he said. “Because churches, NEMA, and the Red Cross are doing the food and water thing, we are pooling our resources because we have international friends and partners that send us money,” he said.

Mr Stafford said that the Rotary Club has initially assisted with relief efforts, dispatching three 250-gallon water tanks to the southern Bahamas. Two of the tanks were sent to Long Island last Friday, as well as food supplies. He said they now want to focus relief efforts on rebuilding economies and infrastructure.

“We have gone beyond … the normal response and we are now interested in helping to rebuild because in Long Island people have lost their main livelihood - the agricultural industry and fishing fleets have been wiped out. These people have families and they have no work and livelihood; and the bonefishing lodge in Acklins or Crooked Island is also gone. That what we are focused on, helping to restore economies of these islands that are devastated.”

Mr Stafford said that they will begin by trying to provide short term structure relief. “There is big call for tarps, and Father Keith Cartwright has asked for 250 large tarps,” he said.

The Rotary Club, in conjunction with the TK Foundation and the Rotary Club of Santa Monica, California, have constructed an Emergency Water Plant on Grand Bahama Highway at a cost of over $200,000.

The water plant, which is a reverse osmosis plant, was established after storm surge contaminated fresh water supply on Grand Bahama following Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, in 2004.